Surprise Beach Trip

 Sunday, Brad and I pulled off a huge surprise. When the kids woke up, he announced he wanted to go out for Father's Day breakfast, so we all got dressed and loaded into his car. We did, in fact, have a lovely Father's Day breakfast at Cracker Barrel. What the kids did not know, though, was that this was just the beginning.

Saturday night, Brad and I had packed and loaded the trunk for a three day beach trip. So when we came out from breakfast, I grabbed the kids backpacks from the trunk and passed them to the back seat, mentioning they may need something to keep themselves entertained for a bit.

They knew something was up, and they figured out pretty quickly we were headed to the aquarium, largely because Issa checked the GPS destination. When we got there, the little rats jumped out to check the trunk to see what else was back there. They saw the beach bag and the a suitcase, so they were pretty sure we were spending the night.

We did have a great day at the aquarium, which started with the kids insisting they take weird pictures with the alligator:

I was quite tickled because I got to pet a sting ray:

 And we got to see lots of animals feeding before we ended with the required frog pictures:

 From there, we went to check in to our hotel and finally told the kids we were in fact staying two nights. We stayed at the Blockade Runner, which is a perfect place for a beach getaway. The view from our room:

 Happy Father's Day, indeed:

As soon as we had settled in, we all walked down to play in the ocean. The private beach was not at all crowded, and the kids had a ball with their new boogie boards.

We came in an got cleaned up for dinner at the fancy on-site restaurant, which we followed with a sunset beach stroll. Issa danced in the surf:

While Evan was Evan:

We headed up to the room for showers, and we made a new friend! Meet bird: 

 He thought he needed to live in our room. We tried to just let him fly out the window, but he was not interested, so I ended up scooping him up and setting him on the balcony railing:

 He did fly away by morning, but we spent the rest of the trip looking for him!

Monday morning, the kids and I headed down to the beach while Daddy worked. Issa spent the morning on her board:

 Evan jumped waves:

 I took turns playing in the surf and enjoying a lounge chair:

 We had lunch in the room before we all went back out to the beach and the pool. After dinner at the poolside restaurant, we attempted kites:

Kites are tough, but gelato afterwards was wonderful!

It was a not a perfectly smooth trip. The ocean swallowed my sunglasses, and I managed to by myself the one non-water resistant sunscreen still on the market. The kids have pink cheeks and I have red everything.

But...I wouldn't change a thing. I loved spending time with the kids. They are growing so quickly. Issa didn't have any of the little girl left about her, and I loved watching her do her own thing in the surf. Evan won by a mile, but I loved racing him on the beach. We were able to spend time talking and laughing and feeling so small by the big ocean. I wouldn't change a thing, and I can't wait for our next adventure.